Top 10 Marketing tips for Social Media and how to make it work
Social media has been around for a few years now and is firmly embedded in our lives. For small businesses it has opened whole range of marketing platforms and tools that 10 years ago just wouldn’t have been available.
On the downside is the fact that social media is so fast moving and new platforms and options seem to be cropping up all the time. I speak to many small business owners who have become over-faced with social media and just don’t know where to start, especially if they have limited time to dedicate to it.
There is endless information, blogs and tips out there to research and review but to make it easy I wanted to compile a simple list of the things that I have found most useful for my own social media activity and what has resonated with my clients.
#1 Use the right platform
Think about what you want to achieve and who you want to target and then pick the right social media platform(s) that fit. Just because everyone has heard of Facebook doesn’t mean it is necessarily the best option if you want to to build relationships with senior business decision makers for example.
#2 Do your research
It is worth spending some time researching what platform you should use and how best to use it. It is also worth seeing what some of the key players in your industry are doing (even if they are much bigger than you they could give you some great ideas). For a retailer – looking at brands like M&S who will give you ideas you can apply to your business about how they engage with their followers and push traffic to their website.
# 3 Plan what you are going to do on each platform
Setting up social media pages and accounts is easy. Posting to them is less so. If you have spent time thinking about the right platform and what you want to achieve, it should be relatively easy to have a plan on what you are going to post and this could be different for each platform.
#4 Don’t bore them to death
The clue is in the word ‘social’. Social media should be engaging to your audience so think of ways you can be interesting, informative and entertaining. Even the ‘dullest’ of subjects can be made interesting and that is the key to good social media.And if you don’t find your business interesting, how do you expect others to?
#5 Be varied
This is linked to #4 as one way to not bore is to be varied. So be aware of the different types of post and make sure you mix it up.
#6 Be well behaved
Don’t confuse your business social media accounts with your personal ones. Even if you are a sole trader, your business account should be for business and not for the types of posts you may put on your personal pages. So no pictures of drunken antics, no swearing, ranting or strong views that aren’t related to your business.
I had a client who got a little carried away on a Saturday night on twitter by replying to a post about something unrelated to his business and then getting involved in a heated slanging match, all under his business account. Unfortunately, that conversation is online for all to see for ever more and does not reflect the type of business he runs.
#7 Don’t Sell
This can be one of the hardest things to grasp but social media isn’t about the sell, so traditional ‘push’ marketing messages won’t work. That’s not to say you can’t post a about a promotion, product or offer but make sure that is not all you do and DON’T use traditional marketing speak. If you want to show you are good value, innovative, high quality, or whatever, then don’t say it but demonstrate it with examples.
#8 Don’t broadcast
Make sure your posts ask for engagement and interaction. No one wants the bombardment of one way information about your company. Give them something more – could you be posting other things of interest?
#9 Integrate your social media and web
This isn’t about setting up automatic posts from one social media platform to another, but it is about thinking about your activity as a whole. So if you write a blog, make sure you post it across all your social media channels. Conversely if you post about something with a link to your website, make sure it is landing on a page that is fit for purpose.
#10 Be regular
One of most common mistakes is to set up a social media account and then fizzle out. Most show dates of postings so are very unforgiving if you have big breaks. It is also true that you can get lost very easily so posting regularly and well will make you more visible.
If you are struggling for time then use some of the scheduling tools either on the platforms or through social media management tools such as Tweetdeck and Hoot Suite. Also, be sensible about what time you have and focus on doing fewer social media things, well.